


Undrafted

by samanthamay



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: Children, Divorce, F/M, Fatherhood, Fluff, Funny, Long, Love, Marriage, Motherhood, One Shot, Playing, Pregnancy, Queen (The Band), Reconciliation, Soccer, We are the champions, daddy is an actor, daugther, happiness, i don't know anything about soccer forgive me, mom is a writer, relationships, soccer match, very fluffy actually, which is weird since i don't write much fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 15:01:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18195722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samanthamay/pseuds/samanthamay
Summary: “Hiya there trouble! Looks like you’re ready to kick some ass, huh?” Joe said, kissing his daughter’s pale cheek several times, making her laugh.“Joe, we don’t use that kind of language in this household.” You said as a way of saluting him which he responded with a simple nod and a light hearted smile.ORJoe Mazzello and reader are divorced. They have an eight year old daugther. Joe takes her to her Sunday soccer match. Reader realizes that maybe divorcing Joe wasn't a good idea after all.ORSome good ol' Mazzello fluff because... why the hell not?





	Undrafted

**Author's Note:**

> I saw an instagram pic of Joe with Gwilym and the captiong read:  
> "Joe Mazzello looking like a dad who brings orange slices to the soccer game then sings 'We Are the Champions' on the ride home with his daughter even though her team lost and she scraped her arm."  
> I just had to write it because I imagined it and it's just so lovely and fluffy so enjoy!  
> Ps; this is barely corrected so if you see any mistakes bear with me, thanks.  
> Ps2: title obviously taken from Joe's movie: Undrafted.

Joe and you divorced one year ago.

 

Despite that fact, he still is the best father a child could ever ask. Especially for your eight year old girl, Mavis, who can’t quite understand why daddy is not living with them anymore or why mommy sometimes invites different men home overnight and makes strange noises (how can you possible explain what a one night stand is to a eight year old?); maybe things didn’t go as planned in your marriage with Joe as you both wanted to, but you’re remain friends, manage not to fight too much in front of your daughter and you see each other quite frequently. Especially now that your little girl decided to join the girls’ soccer team.

“I wanna play at the World Cup, mummy! I’m gonna be more famous than Messi or Ronaldo.” she explained excitedly while watching a soccer match at the telly, her soccer knowledge was something to reckon with. You smiled, very content that your girl was actually more focused on being some successful, independent sports woman rather than watching Disney movies and wanting to be a princess waiting for her prince to rescue her.

“Alrighty, then. You can be whatever you wanna be, baby. But first, you got to wash your teeth, little kicker.” You responded from the kitchen, packing some fresh water and a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Joe was taking Mavis to her Sunday afternoon soccer match.

Once you were done, you went upstairs to see Mavis brushing her teeth rather happily. You waited until she was done and then tied her red wavy hair in a high ponytail. “Remember, honey. It doesn’t matter if you don’t win today. Every failure is also a success, alright?”

Mavis nodded. “Yes, mummy. I understand. But we are totally kicking those girls’ asses!” she exclaimed, her way of talking was completely Joe. She was like a sponge, soaking everything her father spoke and trying to apply it into her life even though some things weren’t that much proper for an eight year old.

“Watch your mouth, young lady. What did we say about using bad words” you scolded your little one, who responded rolling her eyes with a scoff and crossing her arms.

The little girl rolled her eyes and you decided to ignore that action. “Only daddy can say them because he’s an adult.”

“That’s right.” You smiled, thinking how extremely similar he was to Joe from the minute she came into the world with that pretty red hair and wide brown eyes. She didn’t look at all like you, the only thing she got from you was the form of your nose and some mannerisms but the rest was pure Joe. In fact, she was really attached to him even after the divorce; when she was even smaller you used to get jealous from your ex-husband because he had really strong bond with his daughter. This didn’t mean that she didn’t love you any less, of course Mavis loved you so much it hurt but she had some kind of magical connection with Joe perhaps since the day she started kicking.

_“Her kicks are so strong. Maybe she’s not going to be an actress, love. Maybe she’s going to be a soccer player.” Joe once observed with wide eyes, a warm smile drawn on his lips. You were nearly towards the end of your third trimester and you marriage wasn’t even close to fail. “I can’t wait to meet her.”_

The doorbell rang and Mavis let out a squeak of happiness, running down the stairs (despite you telling her she couldn’t do so) and opening the door in a second, jumping to her father’s arms as you watched in the distance, from the living room, crossing your arms and smiling at your child’s joy.

“Hiya there trouble! Looks like you’re ready to kick some ass, huh?” Joe said, kissing his daughter’s pale cheek several times, making her laugh. He never looked as casual as he did every Sunday: He was wearing a gray hoodie, a plain white interior t-shirt, some black sweatpants and that Yankees hat you gave him as an emergency present when you forgot your anniversary for the first time. He loved it the second he saw it.

“Joe, we don’t use that kind of language in this household.” You said as a way of saluting him which he responded with a simple nod and a light hearted smile, “Come in, she needs to put on her lucky sneakers before the game. Don’t you, hon?”

Mavis eyes lit up in realization. “Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Can daddy help me tie them, mummy? Pleeeeeaseeee?”

You smiled at your child’s insistence. “Sure, go get them, they must be inside your closet. Don’t take long though, the game starts in ten.” You responded, sitting on the couch right beside your daughter’s huge pink soccer backpack.

“Woah, she’s getting so big. It’s like every time I blink she just gets bigger and bigger. I wish she was still that chubby baby we used to take out every weekend for picnic at Central Park.” Joe observed, quite nostalgic, just as you sometimes got when you started thinking about how fast Mavis grew. Time literally flied, now she was starting elementary school and soon she would be graduating, entering secondary… your mind started to think how, in a couple of years, she would be off to college when Joe said: “Looks like all the wedding pictures are out of the public view, huh?”

“Well, we are no longer married.” You replied, frowning. “Mavis has one of them in her room, though. She wouldn’t let me take it.”

Joe’s big brown eyes stared at you in slight confusion. “Why’s that?”

You shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe she thinks that we’ll get back together eventually and you’ll be home again. She might be eight but she’s awfully clever. Nothing escapes her, not every single little detail.” You laughed, passing a hand through your hair. The sun was starting to set, the room was filled with a warm, yellow light that made Joe’s reddish hair almost shine.

“She got that from you. I’m not that intelligent, ya know, I’m just an actor.” He explained, making you laugh as he used to do when you were married. He always had this sense of humor that drove you nuts with all his swearing, yelling and classic sarcasm. It was quite some bizarre humor that got your attention once you started dating and one of the things you missed the most after the divorce. He had a perfect ability of making you almost cry with laughter.

“Umm- So, how are things going with BoRhap? Did you get to meet Brian May and Roger Taylor? How are they like? Are they super cute? Super badass? What did they tell you about Freddie? ” You asked, intrigued, trying to break the silence that surged.

The second you knew Joe would be on a Queen movie you felt like you were on a dream. Queen was your favorite band, in fact, you guys actually danced to a slow, ballad version of “You’re My Best Friend” at your wedding reception; Joe laughed as Mavis came down the stairs carefully watching her steps since the laces from her sneakers were undone. Clever girl.

“Daddy come on! Tie my shoes! We’re going late!” she insisted. Joe pulled Mavis onto his lap and started adjusting her bright pink sneakers as he continued talking to you:

“Calm down, kamikaze. Yes, I did met Brian and Roger. Actually, here’s a present from Brian May himself to you.” He said, taking from his pocket a small piece of paper with Brian’s autograph and a quick doodle of a hedgehog: _‘To y/n, rock on -Bri!’_  The paper read. You were beyond ecstatic.

“Oh my God, Joe. I can’t believe this. Thank you so much, seriously.” You murmured, holding onto that tiny piece of paper for dear life. Mavis looked at you quite confused because her mother’s eyes were a little watery and you couldn’t find the words that you needed to talk and _thank_ your ex-husband for such a magnificent gift.

“Mummy don’t cry.” Your daughter pleaded, taking your face into her still tiny hands. She was staring to tear up too.

“Alright, alright. There’s nothing wrong with mummy, Mavy. She’s just big baby, you know how dramatic she can be.” Joe explained and you quickly threw one of the sofa cushions at him. “Hey!”

“I am not dramatic, you tosser.” You said, wanting to call him “wanker” or “idiot” but you couldn’t since your daughter was listening carefully; once Mavis’s laces were perfectly tied, Joe and her were ready to part to her game. You follow them to the porch, saying goodbye to your little one and your red headed ex. “Bring her home by eight. She needs to finish some homework and take a proper bath.”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come, y/n? I cut up some orange slices as a healthy snack. We can eat them while we watch the game.” Joe tried to convince you to go with them, however, you had to finish writing the last chapters of the book you were writing and you were already off schedule. The thing you needed the most was some alone time for wrapping all your ideas together and finally write a decent ending without any sort of distractions.

“Yes mummy! Come with us!” Mavis pleaded enthusiastically, jumping slightly on her feet while holding Joe’s hand, her redhead ponytail bouncing. “It’s gonna be so much fun!”

Even though you were very tempted of having a little break from your writer’s block, you had to finish your book or your agent was going to kill you, almost literally. You wanted nothing else in the world but enjoy some parenting time watching your kid doing what she loved, but work was on the way and you simply couldn’t avoid it anymore. You had to finish and couldn’t waste any time.

“I’d love to guys, but I need to finish my book before my agent attempts to kill me first for not finishing it on time. I’m behind schedule but I promise I’ll go next Sunday, alright?” you said, looking at your daughters’ disappointed face. “Honey, you know mama needs to work. I’m not going because I don’t want to, I just really can’t.” You kneeled in front of your kid, looking at her blushed face since she was doing her best trying not to cry but when she looked at you with her brown, dark eyes the tears started flooding down her chubby cheeks and it broke your heart completely.

“Hey, hey… don’t cry, carrot. Mummy is a very busy woman, she’s doing her best trying to finish her story, we should give her some space, don’t we? I’m sure she really wants to come with us but she can’t. Don’t be mad at her, Mavy Wavy.” Joe tried his best to make your daughter feel a little better as you hugged her, kissing her red hair feeling terribly bad that you couldn’t spend more time with her.

You actually talked to Joe about this, since he was an actor he was away a lot filming, you went on constant book tours around America, sometimes Europe and thus you both left Mavis at your mother’s house for quite a while. You hated being away from her because Mavis needed her parents. That’s why you stopped making long tours and taking Mavis to some of them when she was on vacation. Joe tried to do the same, taking the little girl to set to see how her daddy work, but despite you guys’ effort, Mavis still felt a little left out and no kid should feel like this.

“You know what? Fuck it, let’s go. I’ll finish the book later.” You said, grabbing your keys and your jean jacket.

Mavis’s face lighted up like a Christmas tree. “Really?!”

“Yes, love. I’m going to watch you kick some ass.”

“Hey! If I have to watch my language so do you!” Joe scolded, carrying Mavis as she giggled with sheer happiness.

“I’m a mum, I have the ultimate power of swearing in front of my child and not caring about it. It’s called parenting 101.” You laughed, as you guys walked to Joe’s car in the middle of the sunset; you certainly were going late to the game but it didn’t matter at all as long as Mavis was happy.

 

 

*

 

 

Mavis’ soccer team didn’t won.

They started the match really well (according to Joe’s little knowledge about soccer) but then the little girls started to get a little bit riled up and disorganized, running around kicking the ball and eventually scoring one goal (you both screamed so much, all excited for your daughter’s achievement that the rest of the parents looked at you weirdly, especially at Joe, since he was such a screamer for everything). Despite this, the other team scored two goals almost at the end of the game so there wasn’t much Mavis’s team could do. The coach congratulated the winning team and promised the losing team to train them better so they could win next time.

Mavis was enraged. You could perfectly see it. She had a frown on her face and her arms were crossed. On top of all, while she was running in the field, she tripped and scratched her knee quite badly. You wanted to jump out of your seat and go look at the injury but Joe stopped you arguing that she was okay, indeed she was since she got up and kept on playing.

“Don’t be sad, carrot. Look, it’s like when I audition for a part and I don’t get it. Sometimes I prepare very much and yes, it can be very angering but you just gotta live through it. You learn from your mistakes and move on. It actually makes you stronger and wiser.” Joe told to her daughter while driving, looking at her to the rearview mirror.

“Jenny is gonna bother me all day telling me that her team won.” Mavis murmured from the back of the car. “Mummy, my knee hurts.”

“I know, sweetheart. Don’t worry, once we get home I’ll take a look at it and you can wear those hello kitty band aids you like so much. I’ll make your favorite for dinner so you can cheer up, hon. How does that sound?” you asked, and Mavis gave you a shy smile. “You’re still my little Abby Wambach, darling.” You turned to see your daughter with a smile, throwing her a kiss. Joe turned the radio on and kept changing the channel until Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’ started playing.

“Oh what do we have here?! Are you listening to this Mavy?! It’s your favorite song” he cheered, absolutely joyful, stopping at the red light and turning over to see his child.

“We are not champions, daddy. We lost.” She murmured, looking down.

“Oh come on! Don’t be sad, baby. Come on, sing with me! You don’t have to necessarily be a champion to sing! Come on, here- _weeeee are the champions, my frieeeend-_ ” Joe started singing, poking at Mavis’s belly as much as he could reach, making her laugh.

“Stop it, daddy! I don’t wanna sing!”

“ _And weeeee’ll keep on fighthing to the eeeeendddd, duh duh duh duh DUUUUUH-”_ You continued, unfastening your seatbelt, jumping to the back seat, hugging your daughter tightly and kissing her hair.

“ _Weeeee are the chaaaampions! Weeee areee the chaaaampionsss!”_  Joe and you screamed, literally. “Come on carrot, I know you know the lyric!” her father said, encouraging the girl to sing. “This is your favorite part!”

“ _No timeeee for loooooserrs ‘cause we are the champioooonsss! Of the wooooorld!”_  The three of you yelled as the song reached its highest point. Then you all bursted into laughter as the red light changed to green and kept on driving home. Once you arrived, Mavis fell asleep on your lap, Joe helped you carry her inside and putting her on bed, you took advantage of your daughters’ sleeping state to clean and cure the scratch she had on her knee and changed her soccer uniform to her pajamas.

“She’s taking a quick shower tomorrow morning before school. That’s for sure.” You said once you went back to the living room. “Thank you for taking her. Means a lot for her to spend some time with her daddy before he goes back to film BoRhap.” You took a seat on the couch, sighing. Joe smiled, drinking a sip of the tea you prepared for him.

“It’s the least I can do. I’m not seeing her for an entire month. Don’t get me wrong, I love filming BoRhap, it’s such a great experience and I’m having so much fun but… I miss my family- well, my daughter.” He said and you thought for an ephemeral moment that you also missed your family.

You missed Joe and his particular way of making you laugh, waking up beside him every day, him attempting to make breakfast or singing to Mavis some Queen songs to get her to sleep. You missed all that and, from the second you signed the divorce papers, you knew some day you’d regret such a decision.

You just didn’t know it would be so soon.

“It doesn’t look like it’s been a year since… you know.” You murmured.

“It feels like yesterday.” He agreed.

“Why did we stop trying to make our marriage work, Joe?” that feeling of pain on your throat made it very difficult for you to talk. The answers to some questions you used to have were finally appearing and you were not sure you were ready to face them.

 Joe looked at you with his dark brown eyes, shrugging.

“I don’t know, y/n. It’s quite hard to explain- actually, I don’t think I have an explanation if I’m being truly honest with ya. Maybe we were too concentrated on being good parents to Mavis that we lost each other on the way. I wish I could give you a good answer but the only thing I _do_ know is that I love you. So much. Never stop, never will-” you didn’t let him finish since you were already rising up from your seat and almost running to him, hugging him tightly while some tears escaped from your eyes.

“You idiot. I love you too. So much, Joe. I think divorce was a bad idea, shitty idea in fact. God, sometimes I wait for you to come home even though you don’t live here anymore. And all those wedding pictures? They’re at my room, in a drawer I don’t dare to open because if I do I’ll certainly start crying… I love you… I miss you.”

“Oh thank God. Me too, goddamn, me too. I miss you so damn much-” he started, and you stopped his talking by kissing him. Hard but tender, because even though you were almost desperate for his affectionate touch that you knew so well from all those years being together, you also knew you needed to calm down because he wasn’t going anywhere. He cupped your face in his warm hands and you both smiled.

“Do you think we should try again?” you whispered, he nodded quickly, without any hint of hesitation.

“Like you need to ask, kamikaze.”

You kissed again, his lips tasted like the fresh orange slices you both ate at the soccer match, like your salty tears and like _home_. And, from that simple act, you realized something that you haven’t realized before: everything was going to be alright.

Promising, bright, steady alright.

**Author's Note:**

> moodboard made by me and soon available for download at my tumblr: mccartneysmercurys.tumblr.com  
> KudOS and commENTS are heavily appreciated! xxx


End file.
